The news that agreement was reached between the General Workers’ Union and the Government in relation to the privatisation of the shipyards was indeed positive, but raises some important questions.

The government, from the off, stated that at least 1,000 of the companies’ 1,700 employees needed to leave the shipyards’ employ as no buyer would come in to take over such an over inflated workforce, given the EU’s transfer of business directive which stipulates that in the event of a takeover, all employees on the books at the time must be retained.

The government made much of this need to drastically slash the workforce before 15 September – which is only a few days away.

The government and the union have agreed on fine tuning the packages of those who chose to take the early retirement or voluntary redundancy. This is all well and good, but what is worrying is the agreement which stipulates that the company which eventually does take over the ‘yards will be bound to retain the entire workforce still on the books. What is hard to understand is that the government was previously adamant that no company would come in unless the ‘yards workforce was trimmed to a maximum of 700.

The last semi-official figure to be announced (in relation to those workers who cashed in and left) was of about 375. This means that there are still some 650 "extra" workers that need to be paid off. The union on the other hand has pledged that it will do its utmost to encourage workers to take up the offer, now that it is satisfied by the schemes on offer, and more importantly from its (the union’s) point of view, is that those who decide to stay will be kept on.

The GWU still has a massive bearing on the ‘yards – but quite how its leadership can convince over 600 people to leave the companies remains to be seen, with only a week left.

As with every negotiation, one over estimates so as to meet at common ground in hammering out a deal. It may, in fact, be safe to say that government benchmarks point to about 900 workers being retained is an acceptable condition for prospective buyers. Luckily, the Maltese job market is still strong and the skilled and semi-skilled labourers that did decide to apply for the packages have found alternative employment – lessening the risks that those undecided workers might be weighing up. If their old work buddies found new jobs in such a short space of time, then it will stand to reason in their mind that they can hopefully do the same.

One is sure that the government knows where it is going on this issue, but as already mentioned, this newspaper is of the opinion that there are still some unanswered questions. How were the benchmarks established? What was the true benchmark? How many workers does the GWU think it can convince to leave? And the most important of all – What will happen to the ‘yards if no buyer is found by today week? Will it be echoes of Sea Malta? Will the ‘yards essentially be sold lock stock and barrel to an employer who will buyout a defunct enterprise with no obligation to keep the workers on? The country will have to wait and see, one supposes, seeing that both involved parties are keeping their cards so close to their chests. One is sure that there is still one ace up someone’s sleeve and on the same note, that someone might have overplayed their hand – bad puns and all.